Malampaya shutdown will not affect Luzon power supply, says DOE

MANILA, Philippines - There will be sufficient electricity supply in the Luzon grid despite the eight-day shutdown of the Malampaya gas-to-power project, an energy official said.

Electricity rates, however, are expected to rise anew in August as power plants use expensive liquid fuel.

“Even with the first day of shutdown of Malampaya gas facilities that are feeding three plants in the Luzon grid, we see normal supply situation in Luzon,” Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit said.

The Malampaya project, whose natural gas fuels three power plants with a combined capacity of 2,700 megawatts (MW) or about 36 percent of Luzon’s power generation requirements, is in a scheduled preventive maintenance from July 13 to 20.

Asirit said that on Friday, the Luzon grid had 8,700 MW of available supply, way above the 7,300 MW peak demand.

“We have more than enough reserves just in case any of the plants will go offline unexpectedly,” she said.

The Energy Department also talked to generation companies to ensure efficient operations of the power plants during the Malampaya shutdown, Asirit said.

The Malampaya project fuels the 1,000-MW Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas power plants of First Gen Corp., and the 1,200-MW Ilijan natural gas plant of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. All plants are located in Batangas.

Asirit said only 1,950 MW of the 2,700 MW capacity is available but coal plants such as the 300-MW Malaya coal plant and the 382-MW Pagbilao plant are providing additional output.

However, electricity rates are expected to rise anew that will reflect on consumers’ bills next month.

Asirit said the three power plants that are now using more expensive liquid fuel will pass the extra costs to consumers.

“Hopefully not more than P1 [per kilowatt-hour (kwh) increase],” Asirit said.

Consumers of Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor, already paid an additional 86 centavos per kwh in the past two months, lifting the generation charge to P6.4592 per kwh.